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Ok, so I recorded two programs last night on my HR34. Both were on ESPN HD. The Bears-Lions game and a sportscenter program after the game. Today when I go to watch them, neither one of them will play. In fact, whatever is on the current channel shows up in freeze frame when you press play. You can fast-forward, rewind, whatever but the picture never changes from what was on BEFORE I try to play the recording.

Any thoughts? I've had the receiver for about a month and other than occasional freezes/pixelation it was working good.

It's extremely frustrating to think you recorded something and then not be able to watch it.

yes, I have recordings from previously that play fine. And I recorded something else today from the same channel (ESPN HD) after resetting the receiver and it plays fine. Those other two still do not play.

The issue your discribing sounds very simular to the black screen on recordings the HR2x units will get. The cause of the issue on the HR2x units is a signal problem.
Have you run a system test? (hold info till test screen comes then select run test). If you get a signal releate fail code 4x than call DIRECTV for a service call.
I'm not fluent in the known issues on the HR34 right off the top of my head so I can't say for sure if this is a bug, a one off or a signal issue.

I am a former DIRECTV employee however all statements opinions, views, expressions, etc, are entirely my own even if logic says otherwise.

They DO NOT reflect on DIRECTV and or any partner, affiliated company's, polices, processes, opinions, or things that are not listed here.

I've done the play, ff, rew, skip functions in various orders and nothing happened. I've also tested the signal (post system reset) and everything is in order. I've even done several test recordings after the fact and they worked fine.

The length of the recordings was correct. One was for 4 hours and one was for 1 hour. The history shows everything correct.

The only issue appears to be in trying to play the recordings.

I could understand a file corruption issue if the recording started and then froze but the fact that the only image that is shown is a screen capture of whatever is playing on the current channel instead of anything related to the recording.

That is why this problem is so troubling. I don't see any reported issues with the recording yet they won't play and don't seem to even try to get the correct video.

I had a similar situation with the Red Zone: Just a black screen when I tried to play it a week ago. (Recorded ten days ago.) I thought it might have been related to how The Red Zone was supposed to work, so I asked the question, but saw no response.

The zeros on the SWiM screen mean another receiver is using that SWiM channel. If you put all your receivers on the signal strength screen, they will release those channels and you should have high numbers on your SWiM screen.

As to your problem, it seems intermittent. Are your sat signals levels stable when you watch them for a few minutes?

The same exact thing happened to me this week for 3 programs back to back to back on another channel. It would freeze the last frame that was currently on the screen and you would hear the audio from the recording. It was nothing major so I did not care, I thought it was a broadcast signal error.

This has been mentioned in several threads now, including the one for 0x05D3 Issues/Discussion thread. I've had it happen 2 or 3 times myself in the last 3 releases. It was suggested that it seems to happen when you are tuned to the station you are planning to record. That is when it has happened to me. I could not find any way to get the recording to play. Only suggestion I have is, if you have another DVR - and its something you don't want to miss...make sure you record it on that one as well.

This has been mentioned in several threads now, including the one for 0x05D3 Issues/Discussion thread. I've had it happen 2 or 3 times myself in the last 3 releases. It was suggested that it seems to happen when you are tuned to the station you are planning to record. That is when it has happened to me. I could not find any way to get the recording to play. Only suggestion I have is, if you have another DVR - and its something you don't want to miss...make sure you record it on that one as well.